Post navigation

Isuca Episode 1 Impressions

Thirty seconds into the first episode and we’ve already got nudity and gore. Followed by a deadly arrow, a silhouette of a beautiful girl and an upbeat opening. It certainly grabs your attention off the get go which is what a pilot needs.

Rating: 3/5 curious clouds

Isuca is one of the late ones this season which just premiered yesterday. It follows a boy named Shinichiro Asano, the victim of the prologue’s supernatural creature incident who’s just been financially ditched by his parents. As such, he’s forced to find himself a part-time job… unfortunately for him and the other students around the school, there are creatures lurking around here around the school or around town just waiting to prey on unsuspecting passerby. Even more unfortunate for Shinichirou is the fact that the supernatural creatures can disguise themselves as cute girls.

Sakuya Shimazu, the ojou-sama bishoujo of the school with a kickass attitude is clearly not happy with the fact that her prey just got away due to one middle school boy’s interference. Shimazu-san is pretty up front about revealing the existence of the spirits and ghouls as well as her family’s role to capture these creatures.

While I like the premise of a strong female character who’s more kickass than the male protagonist himself, I’m not really a big fan of the voice-acting in the show. I feel like the two main characters’ interactions come off as way too blunt and unrefined, it’s their separate acting styles that clash due to a lack of chemistry. I also wish Isuca had a cooler outfit or uniquely designed weapon as she’s the female protagonist of the show but that’s more to do with the original character designs from the manga. Speaking of character designs, Shinichirou Asano just looks all kinds of unattractive in this show.

Isuca is one of those shows where there’s enough action and general fan service to keep fans entertained but the art style seems average and the voice cast seems inexperienced as well. There’s also quite a bit of ecchi elements in it so if you’re not usually used to ecchi, stay away from this one. The spells and the entire combat process seems quite interesting though so overall it’s worth a few more episodes before you make the final decision to cut or keep.